The END of House
I was annoyed with the Ten Network with how they wound up the final House season.
They showed part of it earlier this year, one episode a week, and then it vanished. Then recently, they started showing the remainder of the episodes, but it became unpredictable. I don't usually watch the channel 10 though I do watch channel 11 for Next Gen Repeats. So while I caught the fact it was back on (and in the previous timeslot on a Wednesday night) it was only by luck that I found out that they were showing double episodes back-to-back.
I really don't understand when they do that - show multiple episodes all at once. I can only think of three reasons why they do: a lack of content, or maybe they're under contract to show and want to get it done as quickly as possible, or it's the finale and it's a double episode. Ever since digital channels the programming on certain channels has been erratic. Channel 11 started showing double episodes of Next Gen, and double episodes of Deep Space 9 for a while. Then Deep Space Nine was taken off and episodes of Voyager were show - before DS9 had completed it run of repeats?! Then they started sowing double episodes of Voyager, and triple Episodes of Next Gen! I mean it's nice and all, but makes no sense. If you were a programmer couldn't you just show an episode of Next Gen, followed by Deep Space Nine and then Voyage, and then have another time where you did the same? Why show three of the same thing in a row? Mind you they do this with CSI on Sunday nights as well, showing the original, CSI Miama, and CSI New York in a row. A mystery.,
Anyway, the thing was this, I started taping double episodes of House and that was OK, but then when it was obvious a certain was sick, it was clear that I missed an episode somewhere. I still taped double episode on the Wednesday and planned to watch them on the Weekend. Had been ill and running around doing a lot of stuff last week so I hadn't got around to double-check the TV programming. Then on channel surfing Friday I discover a House special on and the FINAL EPISODE on after it! Huh?!
I quickly set the STB to record for both, but I had a feeling I'd missed stuff again. Sure enough, after checking a list of episodes it was clear that I'd missed one between last week and the week before, and also one just before the Final episode. So very frustrating. I could of course with the bandwidth I have just watch the lot online, but half the fun of house was watching it weekly and using the STB to record it. And if I didn't have the recording ability on it I'd be stuffed. IN the end I watched the missing episodes before I saw the finale, but it was still very very annoying.
I have much better luck with Fringe. Two episodes are shown weekly on another network, around midnight, but repeated as double episodes later in the week. There's a glitch on my STBs where if you attempt to timed recording over midnight it often doesn't take. But the double episode is in the early morning so much better - but I still check the programming weekly!
The ending of HOUSE M.D. made me very sad as well, but that's in the next post.